News

As the COP29 climate change conference opens today, our two recently appointed Student Ambassadors share the following on behalf of AD's Steering Group:

The Conference of the Parties (COP) annual meeting of the UNFCCC has historically been a vehicle for significant change. As we crafted this COP statement, we both reflected on growing up alongside the rise of climate activism. Seeing Greta Thunberg - a member of our own generation - ignite a global movement and bring climate discussions to every household was pivotal in shaping our awareness of climate justice. Through the School Climate Strike Movement, she applied pressure not only on governments but also mobilised people worldwide to consider their environmental impact. She became a household name and so did COP.

Meanwhile, it was from a UN International Panel on Climate Change special report that discussions leading to the founding of UK Architects Declare began, marking the beginning of a collective recognition within the built environment of the urgent need for change.

As these movements surpass their fifth anniversaries, the first global stocktake took place at COP28 to assess collective progress. The findings show that:

• The current efforts are still insufficient to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, and implementation of commitments needs to be accelerated and scaled up
• There is an urgent need for a transition away from fossil fuels- notably, not a complete phase out of fossil fuels
• Current adaptation measures are not keeping pace with rising risks
• Increased, equitable, financial support is necessary to implement climate actions effectively

The recent UN Emissions Gap Report also highlights the urgency of the situation, illustrating that our current approach places us on a trajectory toward a 3°C rise - a temperature our Earth cannot tolerate.

Reflecting on the last five years, we feel that the upsurge in climate action in 2019 was unsustained. We feel let down that the actions and commitments since still fell short of delivering the transformational change we should have witnessed.

We need to look beyond a reductionist approach and strive for the regeneration of our natural systems.

As we approach COP29, we urge our government to lead by example and champion discussions aimed at bold, transformative change. By signing the Declaration de Chaillot following COP28, the UK government has reaffirmed its commitment to climate resilience within the built environment. Given the built environment's significant contribution to UK emissions, it has the potential to set a powerful precedent for other sectors on the path to a sustainable future. The UK government now has a unique opportunity to inspire global action by creating a truly regenerative built environment.

While policies addressing housing and energy are in place, we draw attention to AD's Building Blocks - a manifesto for comprehensive, holistic action aimed at a regenerative approach to the built environment. Adopting the Building Blocks framework would allow the UK government to catalyse a ripple effect, inspiring other sectors, countries, and the global community to adopt innovative changes necessary to restore our climate.

We want to see the implementation of innovative national policy, informed by light-footed student and industry-led organising, to ignite lagging global action at COP29.

- Anushka Gupta and Amy Thompson, UK Architects Declare Student Ambassadors

The Autumn Budget was announced on the day that parts of Spain received one year's worth of rainfall in eight devastating hours, causing more than 217 deaths and millions in damages. Against this backdrop, the Chancellor's Autumn Budget lacks the vision and urgency needed to advance a just transition, protect public health and address the government’s priorities for climate and nature. 

There are some welcome investments. Notably the 25% budget rise over the next five years for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; a crucial £200 million per year for tree planting and peatland restoration; a tax hike for private jets and commitment to fund important rail projects like the TransPennine Route Upgrade and East West Rail.

However, the 50% increase in the bus fare cap, and above inflation rise in rail fares continues the long-term trend of rising public transport costs, disincentivising low-carbon travel options. The failure to lift the thirteen year freeze on fuel duty and decision to keep the 5p cut made by Conservatives in 2022, also sends the wrong message about the future of travel. Not least because this tax relief is estimated to have raised UK greenhouse gas emissions by 7% since 2010. 

The government has committed £1 billion of funding over three years for the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, and £3.4 billion for the Warm Homes Plan between the financial years 2024-25 and 2027-28. This is significantly lower than their manifesto pledge of £13.2 billion between 2024 and 2029, and insufficient to address the 27 million UK homes that require retrofitting in order to meet 2050 net zero commitments.

Our Open Letter to the Chancellor on 13th September pointed out the ways in which the budget could have been ambitious in its approach to tax arrangements to address the climate crisis. We also feel that this would have been a chance to align with our Building Blocks policies and commit to investment in a full circular economy transition, but is a disappointing missed opportunity. 

The Autumn Budget was an opportunity for the government to show that addressing the climate and biodiversity emergencies are central to a thriving nation and a successful economy. The piecemeal and unambitious spending announcements fail to reflect the urgency and gravity of the crisis we face.

Last month, UK Architects Declare responded to the Scottish Government's consultation: Building Regulations: Determining the principles for a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard: Stage 1 consultation.

Whilst we are encouraged to see ambitious new legislation being put forward, our response supports the Passivhaus Trust's position that following the Passivhaus methodology offers a documented approach that is effective at reducing the performance gap between performance in design and operation, and we would be disappointed to see this approach watered down at such a critical time in history when rapid emissions reduction is essential.

We encourage the Scottish Government to set a heating demand limit. This legislation has the opportunity to tackle environmental issues at the same time as addressing pressing socio-economic issues such as fuel poverty. We would also welcome standards that consider both regulated and unregulated energy to ensure the full scope of energy use is being considered and are aligned with the objectives of the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard, the pilot version of which was released in September.

Whilst this new legislation is a step in the right direction, Architects Declare would also encourage the Scottish Government to look beyond operational energy, and consider adopting embodied carbon legislation as soon as possible, similar to the "Part Z" proposal (an amendment to The Building Regulations 2010) being advocated for by the construction industry in England and Wales.

Over 100 people joined us for our special online session earlier this month to learn about a range of practical resources on offer to help build the transition to a regenerative built environment with positive, people and planet-friendly actions to turn around the global climate and biodiversity emergency.

Members of the AD group of volunteers working on our Regenerative Design Primer provided a walkthrough of the guide, which we launched earlier this year as initial support alongside the Regenerative Architecture Index we’ve developed with Architecture Today.

• Eike Sindlinger set out what regenerative design is and why it is needed.

• Kevin Logan explained how AD’s Primer is set out to support this shift in practice.

• Anna Pamphilon, who has been leading this work for UK Architects Declare, set out the next steps towards version 2 of the Primer, which we will kick off with a dedicated event on 21st January - details to follow.

As Anna says, “AD sees this work as an iterative and interactive process to support architects and other built environment designers and we encourage any AD signatory practices (and others) who would like to be involved to get in touch.” 

Participants had brief introductions to substantial and practical resources that others have brought to the growing debate on a regenerative design paradigm:

• Isabel Allen, editor of Architecture Today, spoke about the online Regenerative Architecture Network that’s recently launched as part of the Regenerative Architecture Index initiative.

• Oliver Broadbent of Constructivist spoke about their Regenerative Design Lab initiative.

• Joanne Wheeler and Anna Hollyman of UK Green Building Council introduced their Regenerative Places Programme.

• Rachel Sayers of architects FCBStudios outlined the Regenerative Symposium they held for the sector earlier this year. 

• Pete Swift of urban and rural place design practice PlanIt talked about their Regenerative Practice Tool. 

You can watch all the talks in this video from the event. 

And we've created a short summary of the discussions from the Q&A session and Zoom chat, along with all the links to the resources and other sources mentioned in the event. 

Speaking after the event, Anna Pamphilon, said: “It was wonderful to see so many signatories at our Regenerative Design Resources event and encouraging to hear about the various actions being taken across our industry in support of a more regenerative built environment. While there is still a long way to go and much more to be done, this is a strong start!”

Pete Swift of Planit said: “Whilst we are not architects, the invitation by AD has been welcome and timely. This is a joint endeavour and to make any impact we have to get out of our disciplines, as much as our silos. In a world where there is no ‘training manual’ to move towards regenerative thinking and design, we are all compiling our own manuals, building on the work of others. I’m excited to share what we are doing here at Planit – it’s ‘open source’ in the very best way.”

And Rachel Sayers of FCBStudios said: “It is great to see such a strong cohort of thinkers, researchers and practitioners contributing to approaches for regenerative design.”

We look forward to working with our speakers and participants at this event - and with many other organisations - as we navigate and accelerate the shift in paradigm away from ‘business as usual’ and beyond ‘sustainability’ to truly regenerative approaches to a built environment aligned with the needs of the planetary emergency.

UK Architects Declare is delighted to welcome two brilliant Student Ambassadors - Amy Thompson and Anushka Gupta - to support our Steering Group. 

As we mark AD's first five years and plan for our next phase of work, we want to ensure our approach is informed by and remains relevant to a wide range of current and emerging thought on architecture’s place in tackling the planetary emergency. This new role builds on our existing Steering Group members' breadth and depth of experience by ensuring our discussions and plans benefit from the perspectives of students who can draw on their learning and knowledge of student networks to help shape our thinking, how we engage with different audiences and partners, what support we offer signatories, and where we can best intervene to change the systems that perpetuate a degenerative built environment to ones that promote regenerative policies and actions.

As we say in our accompanying LinkedIn post on this development - with links to Amy and Anushka's LinkedIn profiles - there is a lot to be done with regards to building climate literacy around regenerative practices into mainstream architectural education. There have already been some good initiatives, as highlighted in Hattie Hartman's recent Architects’ Journal article (Architectural education is changing. But is it changing fast enough?) but these need scaling up and fast. As Amy and Anushka say in our post: 

“Through our term we aim to lay the foundations towards this goal and establish connections that will allow the network to grow, including outcomes which:

• provide a fresh perspective on current climate mitigation solutions
• keep signatories and aspiring architects connected to new thinking
• give agency to the architects of the future as they move into practice; allowing them the skills to create the change that is needed.”
  

Anushka is a final year undergraduate architecture student at the University of Bath. She has completed internships at NLA and SEA LAB, and has organised large-scale events such as an inter-university student competition and the stuCAN festival as part of Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN).

Amy is currently studying towards her Part 2 qualification at the University of Bath and has a passion for Regenerative Design. She has worked at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios on the regenerative Eden Dundee Project, and is currently conducting her final year research paper on the topic.

AD Steering Group member Zoe Watson says: “I think what excites me the most about this new role is the fresh perspective and energy Amy and Anushka will bring. As professionals it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day client pressures. However, as the climate crisis will affect future generations the most, it seems perhaps more obvious to younger generations that change is the only way forward.”

Amy and Anushka's term runs until June 2025, when we will start planning for next year's Student Ambassador(s) to build on their work with us. This new role is a special addition to support our Steering Group: its existing members work in a range of architectural practices and other built environment organisations around the UK and are also trustees of AD's registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation. 

UK Architects Declare has joined with other environmental and built environment organisations in responding to the Government's recent consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework for England (NPPF). 

The joint statement - from Alliance for Sustainable Building Products, Bioregional, Centre for Sustainable Energy, ClimateEmergency UK, Friends of the Earth, Good Homes Alliance, PassivHaus Trust, Rights Community Action, The Good Law Project, Town and Country Planning Association, UK100, UK Green Building Council and others - suggests three priorities as part of the government’s planning reform agenda:

1. The planning system must prioritise action on climate, and this should be articulated through a definition of the purpose of planning in the NPPF that reflects the crucial role of planning in securing our future in a changing climate;
2. The carbon impact of planning proposals must be accounted and inform planning decisions and plan making; and
3. The NPPF must be reviewed to give increased direction and urgency to the opportunities for planning and development to support resilience and adaptation.

It goes on to say that detailed changes are required to make the NPPF fit for purpose in responding to the climate crisis. As a minimum starting point, it calls for the insertion of the following text into the NPPF, to clarify the relationship between planning decisions and the Government’s statutory carbon budgets and to make clear the overall priority to be given to climate change in the planning system:

"Climate change is the greatest long-term challenge facing the world today. Addressing climate change is therefore the principal concern for sustainable development. For the avoidance of doubt, achieving sustainable development includes securing the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. All planning strategies, and the decisions taken in support of them, must reflect the ambition to help business and communities build a zero carbon future and prepare for the impacts of climate change. Accordingly, planning policies and all planning decisions must be in line with the objectives and provisions of Climate Change Act 2008 including the 2050 net zero carbon target."

Dear Chancellor

As you prepare for the first Budget of the Labour Government, we write to offer practical ideas and expertise that support an economic recovery by advancing a just transition, protecting public health and addressing government priorities for climate and nature.

UK Architects Declare is a network of more than 1,350 architectural practices of all sizes across the UK, with a shared declaration and committed to positive action on the climate and biodiversity emergency. Since our formation in 2019, we have led with practical guidance and policy, helped create a wider Built Environment Declares grouping and worked with the other networks within that and beyond.

Earlier this year, we held a Parliamentary launch for Building Blocks to Transform the Built Environment, a policy framework including early adoption measures that has been endorsed by a range of leading industry bodies. It emerged from our initial conversations with Ed Miliband, in his then capacity as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, and evolved through discussions with our signatories, developers and many built environment experts. Building Blocks offers coherent and progressive recommendations to prioritise resource efficiency, kick start the circular economy, restore social and natural infrastructure and to secure the foundations for a just transition.

We support decisions for a Budget that will promote such policies. In particular, we urge you to adopt the following eight progressive tax initiatives for a just transition:

1. Carbon tax for a just transition: Implement ‘polluter pays’ and ‘conserver gains’ policies.

2. Enhance sustainable transport: Implement a frequent flyer levy - with all revenues to go towards subsidising long-distance trains.

3. Increase resource efficiency: Raise landfill tax and aggregates levy - with all revenues to go towards local community projects promoting the circular economy.

4. Reduce inequality: Create employment through shifting tax away from labour and onto materials.

5. Improve health and nature: Implement a ‘toxin tax’ on substances that are harmful to biodiversity or human health - with all revenues to go towards restoring nature and water quality.

6. Rebalance VAT and reduce fuel poverty: Reduce VAT on refurbishment and increase VAT on new-build developments.

7. Reduce waste: Implement an obsolescence tax on wasteful short-life products - with all revenues to go towards VAT reductions on products sold with a lifetime guarantee or a ‘right to repair’.

8. Fairer housing for all: Increase tax on second homes and empty properties - with all revenues to go towards building social homes.

With these tax proposals we ask you to introduce a Budget that will create greater social equality, share growing economic opportunities and restore our natural systems, for the wellbeing of all.

We welcome an opportunity to meet with your Treasury team and other government departments and to share our expertise and ideas.

Your sincerely,

Alasdair Ben Dixon, Anna Lisa McSweeney, Anna Pamphilon, Anna Woodeson, Carrie Behar, Chloe van Grieken, Craig Robertson, Deepthi Ravi, Julia Barfield, Kevin Logan, Laura Baron, Mandy Franz, Michael Pawlyn, Tom Gibson, Tom Greenall, Zoe Watson

UK Architects Declare Steering Group

As we mark our first five years and plan for our next period of work, we want to ensure AD’s approach is informed by and remains relevant to a wide range of current and emerging thought on architecture’s place in tackling the planetary emergency. 

We're therefore recruiting a student ambassador who can draw on their learning in academia and in practice and their knowledge of student architectural networks. They will help shape our thinking, how we engage with different audiences, who we collaborate with, what support we offer signatories, and where we can best intervene to change the systems that perpetuate a degenerative built environment to ones that promote regenerative policies and actions.

They will join the Steering Group as a non-voting member for a fixed term. Like all our SG members, this is a voluntary position.

See our Student Ambassador role description for full details. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, including underrepresented groups.

Deadline for applications: 20th September.

We were excited to have over 120 people join us and our hosts HaworthTompkins on 24th July to celebrate UK Architects Declare's first five years.

Around 80 organisations were in the room to celebrate how far we've come together over the past five years, including signatory practices and partners in our programme to move the built environment to address the planetary emergency. The energy, dedication and creative thinking to drive our collaborative action forwards is more prevalent than ever.

Members of our Steering Group shared their insights from AD's inception in 2019 and impetus to bring the sector together around our declaration points for systems change, the successes in producing our Practice Guide and Practice Action Masterclasses, and our more recent achievements with the Regenerative Design Guide, Regenerative Architecture Index and Building Blocks manifesto for transformative built environment policies.

Tom Gibson, one of our new Steering Group members, welcomed us to HaworthTompkins. Michael Pawlyn, AD's co-instigator alongside Steve Tompkins, told everyone how "Five years ago hardly anyone was talking about regenerative design, and now everyone is. That’s something we’ve all created together - the potential for architects to reclaim our agency as shapers of the future, as integrators and systems thinkers.”

Zoe Watson said "I think everyone in this room can be extremely proud of the community we’ve grown together and the collective action we have taken over the past 5 years"

Deepthi Ravi, one of our newest Steering Group members, painted a picture of our future focus: "Let’s embrace and transform the built environment that we all work with for 2030, and do it such that we plan, construct and operate within planetary boundaries.."

Julia Barfield led us in a toast to AD's programme and partners, and Carrie Behar reminded us of all the people and organisations who have made AD a success and whose support is fundamental to our work - and of the opportiunities to support us through a financial donation or to get involved in our work. Over the years, AD has worked closely on publications and events with many partners, including the RIBA and ACAN!, with an array of organisations on our Building Blocks policy work, and most recently with Architecture Today to launch the Regenerative Architecture Index - which will announce its first year's results in September.

Carrie then guided us through a short discussion, asking guests to become gather in the corners of the room designated with AD's key themes, according to where they think we should focus our activity - 'influencing local and national policy', 'supporting signatory practices', 'advocating for industry change', and 'something else' that they wished to propose for us.

Our Plan for Change sets out our approach to supporting signatories and demonstrating where leadership can replace the system that has created the climate and biodiversity emergency with one that builds a better future for us all.

Thank you to everyone at HaworthTompkins for all their help organising this special event, making us welcome at their offices - and making a special cake! - and all who made this such a great evening!

UK Architects Declare has today sent the following Open Letter to Chris Williamson, Funmbi Adeagbo, Duncan Baker-Brown - candidates in the current election to the position of Presdient of the RIBA (copied to the current President, Muyiwa Oki):

The election of a new President of the Royal Institute of British Architects comes at a time of heightened awareness of the scale and scope of the planetary emergency and the significant contribution our built environment makes to furthering the crisis. Now is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for architects and those we work with to take real action to solve these deeply rooted problems.

UK Architects Declare supports practices in transitioning to regenerative design and in demonstrating where the systems that govern how our built environment performs can be changed, moving us away from continued degenerative actions to a positive future for all. Our vision for our sector’s part in tackling the emergency is bold: “A built environment planned, constructed and operated within planetary boundaries to deliver environmental justice and to support the flourishing of all life for all time.”

We are proud to have worked closely with the RIBA on important steps on this journey. Our joint Built for the Environment report and summit ahead of the COP26 global conference in Glasgow in 2021 showed the opportunities for the UK to lead. More radical and systemic change is required, with the greatest action needed at the highest leverage points involved in changing any system:

1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system - its goals, power structure, rules, its culture - arises.
2. The goals of the system.
3. The distribution of power over the rules of the system.
4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints).
5. Information flows.
6. Material flows and nodes of material intersection.
7. Driving positive feedback loops.

It is here that key institutions such as the RIBA must lead. RIBA has a central role in how our profession adapts to our changing reality and leads the urgent transition we need. Putting it simply, what would it look like if RIBA maximised its agency on the planetary emergency?

We call on all candidates for this new term of office to engage clearly and directly with the following policies as the driving force for the RIBA’s actions on the planetary emergency in the short, medium and long terms:

1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, power structure, rules, its culture — arises.

• Redefine the RIBA’s definition of the purpose of the profession to include addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency and designing within planetary limits.
• Collaborate with other professional institutions to demand of Government the systems changes necessary to safeguard the future and address climate justice. These include the following 4 points:

1. Join the Wellbeing Economy Government Partnership (alongside Scotland and Wales) to prioritise wellbeing over GDP and adopt the maximisation of planetary health as the primary purpose driving our economy.
2. Implement a Better Business Act to impose a duty to wider stakeholders including the living world as to require a clearly stated purpose for all companies.
3. Move towards Doughnut Economics, to utilise the built environment to bring all UK citizens above the social foundation while staying within planetary limits.
4. Implement a Wellbeing of Future Generations Act as proposed by Lord Bird and the UN.

2. The goals of the system

• Align all RIBA awards with the redefined purpose of the profession, as above.
• Expand the RIBA Architecture 2030 scheme to align with leading regenerative thinking.

3. The distribution of power over the rules of the system

• Appoint an advisor on regenerative design (reporting directly to the President).
• Create a standing Ethics committee to advise the board on decision-making, and put forward annual debates (similar to RICS Harris Debates).

4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints)

• Accelerate and widen engagement with a campaign on the regulation of function in the UK where there is a “strong public interest that the professional function of the architect should be regulated and key activities reserved to qualified and competent professionals.”
• Empower the professional standards team to interface with practices more readily, by both visiting and promoting practices who demonstrate best practice as well as visiting and investigating practices reported for not meeting the code.
• Revisit the code of conduct and practice, and engage broadly with students and practitioners on the efficacy of the current code as well as perceived and actual accountability under it.

5. Information flows

• Organise an extensive programme of lectures, workshops and training featuring leading experts on how to address the planetary emergency through supporting innovation in products or workflows for sustainable or regenerative construction.

6. Material flows and nodes of material intersection

• Review sponsorship deals through an ethical/sustainable lens.

7. Driving positive feedback loops

• Share open access data on the RIBA 2030 Challenge.

UK Architects Declare stands ready to work with and support the RIBA and its President in enacting change at these levels, including calling on others in the profession, the built environment sector and governments across the UK to identify and bring about complementary systems change. We will also continue to develop the practical initiatives - such as our Regenerative Architecture Index (with Architecture Today), our Regenerative Design Primer and Practice Guide - to support architectural practices as we help to build a better future, and welcome opportunities to work with the RIBA on these.

From the UK Architects Declare Steering Group:

Alasdair Ben Dixon, Anna Lisa McSweeney, Anna Pamphilon, Anna Woodeson, Carrie Behar, Chloe van Grieken, Craig Robertson, Deepthi Ravi, Julia Barfield, Kevin Logan, Laura Baron, Mandy Franz, Michael Pawlyn, Tom Gibson, Tom Greenall, Zoe Watson